The AP reports that competitors in Beijing may face environmental challenges:
To host the Olympic sailing events, the Chinese port city of Qingdao moved a massive boat yard, relocated industries and spent about $850 million on transport links, parks, pollution controls and coastal green belts.
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But with little more than a month to go until the Games, a different challenge is cropping up: A forest of blue-green algae is choking the coastal waters, suffocating beaches and lying in thick layers along sailing routes.
The Olympic committee should bar any country from applying to host the games if they can not achieve environmental guidelines such as air and water quality.
The New York Times had an interesting look at cause:
Water quality has been a concern for the Olympic sailing events, given that many coastal Chinese cities dump untreated sewage into the sea. At the same time, rivers and tributaries emptying into coastal waters are often contaminated with high levels of nitrates from agricultural and industrial runoff. These nitrates contribute to the red tides of algae that often bloom along sections of China’s coastline.
But officials in Qingdao this week said pollution and poor water quality did not have a “substantial link” to the current outbreak, according to Xinhua. Instead, scientists blamed the bloom on increased rainfall and warmer waters in the Yellow Sea. Algae blooms now affect more than 5,000 square miles of sea water, according to Xinhua.
Regardless of cause, the real question is impact. I guess the 10,000 people who are cleaning up all the algae could be tested for ill effects, as well as all the animals fed the stuff:
Photographs in the Chinese media showed rickety wooden boats overflowing with green mounds of algae collected from the sea. One photo showed a young boy crouched on a beach beside piles of the leafy glop as a dump truck carried off a large load of algae. State media reported that 100,000 tons of the algae had already been taken out of the water. Much of it was being transported to farms as feed for pigs and other animals, according to news reports.
Maybe the Chinese could convert the Algae into biodiesel? It is great the Olympics are forcing China to clean up, but the clean up should come long before the games so these risky and questionable quick-fix solutions would not be necessary.